Health and Communication

Question: Describe about healthy communication. Answer: Communication is an important and integral part of everyones life, without it we cannot survive. Nor-verbal and verbal communication starts when a person is born and only ends when he or she dies. This transfer of information between people plays a crucial part in a health care setting. The effective nursing relationship is dependent on the relationship between a client and the nurse. The relationship should be always helping or therapeutic. This can be achieved when the patient trusts the nurse. This trust is based on communication as patients in a health care setting view nurse as a person who they can open up to. They should feel that they can talk about their concerns without the fear of being judged (Bolster Manias2010). If the patient feels that the nurse is uncaring and distant it will only add to the stress that the patient is already encountering. Greetings and eye contact play a crucial role, as when meeting for the first time with the patient the nurse should greet and reach out to the patient. This will make the patient feel inclined to share his or her feelings (Fakhr-Movahedi, Salsali, Negarandeh Rahnavard, 2011). There are numerous hidden aspects of communication and tone of voice is among one of them. A simple greeting like Good morning can be interpreted differently if spoken with a different character and tone of voice. As a nurse you should be alert to know the different tones (Devik, Enmarker, Hellzen, 2013). If a nurse greets a patient for the first time in the morning and gets a Good morning reply in an emotional tone, it may be that the patient is worried or disturbed due to something. If he is cheerful it means that he is happy with his recovery and treatment. Lastly if he replies back in an angry tone it could be something is bothering him. Sincerity, kindness and courtesy are key components in communication in a nursing profession. Communication helps in performing consistent and accurate nursing work. There are different forms of communications like verbal and non verbal communication. Verbal communication is when words are used to present feelings, thoughts and ideas. A nurse should be a good verbal communicator, which means that they should know how to present their ideas as well as they should listen to people carefully. Non verbal communication is such where opinions and ideas are expressed through contact, signs, objects, pictures, tone of voice, facial expressions, body language and gestures (McGilton , Sorin-Peters , Sidani , Rochon , Boscart , Fox ,2010). In order to communicate well a person has to go through a communication cycle. This cycle can have numerous barriers such as lack of interest, emotional barriers, cultural differences, use of jargons, differences in viewpoint, and stereotyping (Garra , Albino , Chapman , Singer , Thode ,2010). In a health care setting there are numerous other barriers such as noise, anxiety, lack of privacy, and communication being blocked by other staff (Jahromi Ramezanli, 2014). A nurse can effectively manage and minimize these barriers if he or she has conscious awareness. They have to possess skills to focus on the patient and demonstrate active listening. They should always look for cues and ask open questions. They should remain silent while the patient is replying and should screen the patient for any other cue (Fakhr-Movahedi, Salsali , Negharandeh , Rahnavard , 2011). The nurses should provide small information at a time by avoiding medical jargons and using clear terms. They should avoid p roviding details until it is required. They should pause and wait for a response before moving on. Refection is equally important in effective communication between a nurse and a patient. As the nurse should repeat what the patient has said to show that they have heard what the patient has said. Listening is also very important in a nursing profession as the nursing profession requires concentration and attention. Nurses not only assess the problem and the situation of the patient but also enhance the self esteem of the patient by actively listening to them. Active listening is a way of sharing patients feelings and thoughts. As you listen and repeat you check with the patient and clarify (Kourkouta Papathanasiou, 2014). This prevents the patients to feel invisible and isolated. Empathy is the ability that lets a nurse enter the relational world of the client and to feel and see this world as the client feels and sees it. This ability helps in attending the subjective experience of the client and to validate his or her understanding in an accurate way. Empathy is the ability to understand and enter the experience of a different person and this is important in a nursing profession as it helps a nurse to understand, and support the patients. Patients expect a nurse to show sympathy, interest and to understand the difficulty that they are facing as they are seeking more than just treatment. During treatment there are times when the patient may feel the need for a therapeutic relationship to make the treatment a little less challenging. This is when empathy plays a crucial part as patients need the support of the nurses to understand a negative experience. There are numerous reasons that can prevent a person to listen empathically to someone. Some of these reasons are identifying rather than empathizing, feeling tired, trying to listen to more than one person, not interested, making judgments, preoccupation, sympathizing rather than empathizing and having a closed mind. In a health care setting a nurse has to be an empathic listener as it is in the course of taking care of the medicines, treatment and care of the patient. Confidentiality and privacy are the basic rights given by the society. Confidentiality should be applied regarding the protected information of the patients. Safeguarding these rights is a legal and ethical obligation of all health care providers (Sohrabi, Alimohammadi , 2010). Nurses should understand the need to keep patients confidentiality as their relationship with the client depends on it. It is a sacred trust that the patient is placing in the health care system. It is the duty of the health care providers tha t they protect the well being of the patients that are entrusted to their care. It is in human nature to discuss and talk about things that are common but care should be taken while discussing about patients. Due to increasing communication technology and the nature of the social media nurses should remain vigilant regarding posting images, and recordings that unintentionally breech their obligation towards protecting the patients confidentiality. Breaching confidentiality is failing the patient autonomy. It is betrayal of the trust that the patient has shown in the health care providers. This breach could lead to a disciplinary action against the person who made the disclosure. An action can be taken against the person as well as his or her employer. In case of a health care setting a disciplinary proceeding can take place. A fine can also be imposed on the employer. Although confidentiality is a right of the patient but it is not absolute as there are some legitimate exceptions when doctors or nurses can breach confidentiality. Some of these instances are when the patient has himself given consent (disclosure with consent), when it is important to share clinical information with other staff (multidisciplinary teams) members for the management of the patient, sharing the information to the patients family until the patient has specifically requested not share the information with family members, disclosure in the interest of the public (when informing local officers about a communicable disease that the patient may have and it needs to be controlled), and when there is a risk to the safety of others or to prevent crime. A patients medical records are the most sensitive of personal records and therefore care should be taken with these records (Cowen Yentis,2012). The records that are kept in the health care sector should be timely, accurate, honest and clear. Poor record keeping can lead to adversely affecting the patient treatment and recovery. These records document the assessments on the progress of the patient care therefore quality should be a priority (Eikey, Murphy , Reddy, Xu , 2015). These entries should be made in detail as the patient treatment depends on these records. The nurses are usually responsible in maintaining these records as the review and assess the patients condition the most. The progress, issues and concerns all have to be documented. It is important that these notes are clear a s patients and other non medical personnel can also review these notes. Any comments that are of personal nature should be avoided to be documented in these notes (Jackson Lim, 2011). It is not unusual that an incorrect entry is made in a busy environment like a hospital therefore special care should be taken about the time, year and correct date (Lin Lin, 2011). It is advisable to not delete or remove anything from these records as that may look suspicious. These records are required for effective communication between health care professionals that are attending on the patient. Failure to maintain a comprehensive medical record may compromise the management and care of the patient. Despite their importance medical records are given low priority as these notes are poorly maintained and many times are not readily available. Due to numerous incidences of poor record keeping there are numerous cases of litigation that have been against health care professionals. Therefore it is cruci al that these medical records are kept simple, clear and accurate. These records reflect the quality of care that was provided to the patient. 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